Zoos Quotes

• People forget the good that zoos do. If it weren't for zoos, we would have so many species that would be extinct today.

  Betty White

  People, Would Be, Today

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

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• The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Wisdom, Peace, Kindness

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• We would consider it cruel to confine a dog permanently in a kennel. Yet we visit zoos where hundreds of wild animals are kept permanently in the equivalent of a kennel.

  Virginia McKenna

  Dog, Animal, Wild Animal

  Virginia McKenna, Will Travers, Jonathan Wray (1987). “Beyond the bars: the zoo dilemma”, Sterling Pub Co Inc

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• Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.

  Evan Esar

  Carpe Diem, Study, Habit

  "Esar's Comic Dictionary". Book by Evan Esar, 1943.

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• I am personally not against keeping animals at zoos, as they serve a huge educational purpose, but treating them well and with respect seems the least we could do, and with 'we' I mean not just zoo staff, but most certainly also the public.

  Frans de Waal

  Educational, Mean, Animal

  "Jump, Tiger, Jump!" by Frans de Waal, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 27, 2007.

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• Zoo animals are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild.

  Jack Hanna

  Cousin, Animal, Ambassadors

  74 Copy quote

• The Zoo is a prison for animals who have been sentenced without trial and I feel guilty because I do nothing about it. But there it was, I wanted to see an oyster-catcher and I was no better than the people who'd caged oyster-catchers for me to see.

  Russell Hoban

  Freedom, Animal, Oysters

  "The Turtle Diary".

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• Nature is to zoos as God is to churches.

  Margaret Atwood

  Nature, Church

  Margaret Atwood (2014). “The MaddAddam Trilogy Bundle: The Year of the Flood; Oryx & Crake; MaddAddam”, p.209, Anchor

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• The only creature on earth whose natural habitat is a zoo is the zookeeper.

  Robert Breault

  Animal, Earth, Habitat

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• Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo - obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.

  Angela Davis

  Jail, Prison Population, Break

  Angela Davis: An Autobiography ch. 1 (1974)

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• Let us free all the animals in the zoos to show them that we are not animals!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Animal, Shows

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• Zoos are becoming facsimiles - or perhaps caricatures - of how animals once were in their natural habitat. If the right policies toward nature were pursued, we would need no zoos at all.

  Michael J. Fox

  Animal, Needs, Habitat

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• If zoos are like arks, then rare animals are like passengers on a voyage of the damned, never to find a port that will let them dock or a land in which they can live in peace. The real solution, of course, is to preserve the wild nature that created these animals and has the power to sustain them. But if it is really true that we are inevitably moving towards a world in which mountain gorillas can survive only in zoos, then we must ask whether it is really better for them to live in artificial environments of our design than not to be born at all.

  Peter Singer

  Real, Moving, Animal

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• Stop going to the zoos! Don't take your children to the zoos! No creature ever deserves captivity without any crime!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Children, Captivity, Crime

  33 Copy quote

• If you want to understand how a lion hunts, don't go to the zoo. Go to the jungle.

  Jim Stengel

  Marketing, Lions, Want

  64 Copy quote

• Life is a zoo in a jungle.

  Peter De Vries

  Life, Bad Day, Jungle

  Peter De Vries (2014). “The Vale of Laughter: A Novel”, p.86, Open Road Media

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• I became very critical of zoos and circuses and keeping animals in captivity. I wish it was against the law.

  Christopher Walken

  Animal, Law, Wish

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• The zoo cannot but disappoint.

  John Berger

  Animal, Pet, Disappoint

  John Berger (2008). “Selected Essays of John Berger”, p.429, Vintage

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• A zoo is a good place to make a spectacle of yourself, as the people around you have creepier, more photogenic things to look at.

  David Sedaris

  People, Looks, Photogenic

  David Sedaris (2010). “When You Are Engulfed In Flames”, p.15, Hachette UK

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• Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo.

  Paul Simon

  Happenings

  Song: At The Zoo

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• The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.

  Desmond Morris

  Funny, Concrete Jungle, Cities

  The Human Zoo (1969) p. 8

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• Because we have put ourselves in our own zoo, we find it difficult to break out.

  Edward T. Hall

  Culture, Break Out, Difficult

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• Through PETA, we rescue animals in roadside zoos and circuses. They are some of the most abused animals in the country.

  Sam Simon

  Country, Animal, Circus

  "Terminally Ill 'Simpsons' Co-Creator Vows to Give Away Fortune". Interview with Gary Baum, www.hollywoodreporter.com. July 25, 2013.

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• Each living art object, taken out of its native habitat so we can conveniently gaze at it, is like an animal in a zoo. Something about it has died in the removal.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Art, Taken, Animal

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• I love acting, but it's much more fun taking the kids to the zoo.

  Nicole Kidman

  Children, Fun, Kids

  FaceBook post by Nicole Kidman from Nov 29, 2016

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